“Today, in the evening, I presented the Prime Minister with a resignation statement due to a wave of misunderstandings regarding the importance of culture during the war. Only later was I surprised by the President’s statement on the same issue,” said the former minister.
Tkachenko emphasized that “the war is not only fought for territories but for people” and expressed support for allocating budgetary funds to cultural matters.
“Both private and budgetary funds for culture are no less critical during the war than for drones because culture serves as the shield of our identity and our borders. This is my principled stance in contrast to others,” Tkachenko said.
On July 20, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that he had approached Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal with a request to consider replacing the Minister of Culture, Oleksandr Tkachenko.
Previously, Shmyhal responded to a petition with over 25,000 signatures calling for Tkachenko’s dismissal, stating that there were no grounds for it.
Numerous cultural and renovation works have continued in Ukraine despite the war, angering some of the country’s citizens. They believe that it would be better to provide the money used for these initiatives to the military instead.